In a dramatic, last-minute reprieve, a death row inmate in Oklahoma was told he would not face the lethal injection just moments before he was due to be executed.
Tremane Wood, 46, was scheduled to receive the lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary at 10am local time on Thursday, November 14, 2025. He was convicted for the murder of a teenage farmer during a motel robbery on New Year’s Day in 2002.
A Last-Minute Decision
Wood was waiting in his cell to be taken to the execution chamber when the expected call never came. At 10.01am, Governor Kevin Stitt announced his decision to grant clemency.
In an official statement, Governor Stitt said, ‘After a thorough review of the facts and prayerful consideration, I have chosen to accept the Pardon and Parole Board’s recommendation to commute Tremane Wood’s sentence to life without parole.’
The governor explained that this decision meant Wood’s punishment would now align with that of his brother, Zjaiton ‘Jake’ Wood, who was also involved in the murder but received a sentence of life without parole. Zjaiton died by suicide in 2019.
The Crime and the Campaign for Clemency
The case centred on the murder of Ronnie Wipf, a 19-year-old from a Montana colony of pacifist Christians known as Hutterites. In 2002, the Wood brothers, with two female accomplices, lured Ronnie and his friend, Arnold Kleinsasser, to an Oklahoma City motel by pretending to be prostitutes.
Waiting in ski masks and trench coats, the brothers attempted to rob the teenagers. A struggle broke out, a gun was fired, and Ronnie was fatally stabbed in the heart. Arnold Kleinsasser managed to escape.
Zjaiton Wood confessed to the killing but insisted his brother was not involved, a claim contradicted by witnesses. Tremane Wood did not testify at his trial but later admitted to participating in the robbery, though he blamed his brother for the actual stabbing.
The campaign to spare Tremane Wood from execution gained significant support from an unlikely alliance: both the survivor, Arnold Kleinsasser, and the victim’s mother, Barbara Wipf.
‘The Lord will take care of punishment. That’s not for us to decide,’ Barbara Wipf stated publicly. Arnold, who said he received an apology letter from Wood last year, added, ‘Being a Christian, I would be totally against it. I look at it from a perspective of how much I’ve been forgiven from God. And that’s the same forgiveness I’m called to extend.’
Opposition and Final Outcome
Despite this victim support, the state’s attorney general, Gentner Drummond, strongly opposed clemency. He argued that Wood remained a danger to the public, presenting evidence that he had orchestrated violent crimes and sold drugs from behind bars.
‘Clemency is not a right; it is an act of mercy considered only for those who, at minimum, demonstrate genuine remorse and moral transformation. Tremane Wood has done neither,’ Drummond contended.
The final decision rested with Governor Stitt after the US Supreme Court refused to stay the execution at around 9am. Stitt’s approval of clemency is a rare move; since executions resumed in Oklahoma in 2021, he has only agreed with the Pardon and Parole Board's clemency recommendation once before.
The decision was welcomed by a bipartisan group of state leaders, the archbishop, and anti-death penalty campaigners, while prosecutors and the attorney general's office vowed to ensure Wood remains in prison for life.
